Wednesday, September 12, 2012



AWAKE TO THE SHOCKING TRUTH

By

Katherine Tapley-Milton

"Men think in herds, go mad in herds, but recover their senses one by one." -- Charles Mackay

"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses
over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic." -- Dresden James


“Electroshock is violence” -- Ramsey Clark former U. S. Attorney General 1983

“If the body is the temple of the spirit, the brain may be seen as the inner sanctum of the body, the holiest of places.  To invade, violate and injure the brain, as electroshock unfailingly does, is a crime against the spirit and the destruction of the soul.” – Leonard Roy Frank, editor, writer, and shock survivor


     Electroshock therapy was first invented in 1934 by Italian psychiatrist, Ugo Cerletti. and since then it has had a dark history of human suffering and torture. Unfortunately, it is more popular among psychiatrists than ever, especially because in the U.S. doctors make over $3,000,000,000 a year on it.  Patients are told that shock therapy is good for them and that it is harmless, however many mental health consumers have severe and permanent memory loss as a result of being shocked.  Many consumers have three- quarters of their long term memory gone forever.  In  the United States during one year over 88,000 psychiatric patients are given electroshock and in Canada about 15,000 a year have been receiving it.   Women and the elderly are the chief targets for shock therapy and it is administered by psychiatrists as a treatment for clinical depression.
       Forty percent of shock therapy is given to those over sixty and often shock is forced on patients or they are tricked into signing a consent form.  Another seldom talked about side effect of shock therapy is death, a fact which is mostly covered up by professionals. Psychiatrist and mental health activist Peter Breggin estimates that, “the general ECT death rate as one death for every 1,000 patients shocked, and a much higher rate of one death per 200 for elderly patients.”  Professionals justify shock therapy because they say that it lowers the suicide rate in bipolar patients and those with clinical depression.  However, Dr. Donald Black did a study on 1,000 depressed patients in Iowa and found that shock therapy did not prevent suicides.  He discovered that those patients who were shocked had an 85% higher death rate over a two year period. Clearly, having been electroshocked contributed to their deaths.  The famous Earnest Hemingway who lived from 1899-1961 and was a Nobel Prize-winning author, “… allowed himself to be talked into receiving 20 electroshock treatments. The result devastated him. As he told a friend, “Well, what is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business? It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient….” Indeed we did. He committed suicide shortly afterwards.” http://www.cchr.org/electroshock_and_psychosurgery/history_of_electroshock.html     In the article, “Electro Shocking Elderly People: Another Psychiatric Abuse” by Don Weitz, the author writes, “Together with many shock survivors and other shock critics, Peter Breggin wants electroshock banned, because psychiatrists routinely fail to warn patients about the serious risks of permanent memory loss and brain damage (a serious violation of informed consent), and because elderly, sick, and frail patients are being increasingly targeted for electroshock.  He explained his position in a recent phone interview with me last March, ‘The escalating rate of shocking the elderly is one reason why I have come out in recent years for a complete ban on the treatment. The elderly are less able to defend themselves against shock treatment, and their brains are more susceptible to devastating damage.’ .”http://www.cchr.org/electroshock_and_psychosurgery/history_of_electroshock.      The “No Force Coalition” at   http://www.qsos.ca/qspc/nfc/fact3.html warns that, “There is no such thing as "informed consent" to electroshock because: a) psychiatrists and other doctors routinely refuse to inform patients about the common and serious risks of permanent memory loss and brain damage, b) psychiatric hospital wards and "mental health" centres where electroshock is usually administered are inherently intimidating and coercive, and c) psychiatrists and other doctors routinely fail to mention safe and humane alternatives such as self-help or support groups, community crisis centres, diet, exercise, meditation, friends.... .”    How then can a mental health consumer protect him or herself from forced electroshock?  The organization called, “Mind Freedom” directed by David Oaks in Eugene, Oregon, is dedicated to helping patients with civil rights and stopping electroshock. http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/introduction-to-mindfreedom-shield .  On their website MindFreedom explains what they do: “The MindFreedom Shield Program is a coordinated registration system and solidarity network of current MindFreedom members who want to have as much protection as possible from coerced or forced psychiatric treatment. The MindFreedom Shield is not meant to replace a formal psychiatric "advance directive," which is a legal document we highly recommend people fill out. MindFreedom does not have the resources to assist in completing an advance directive. If a member who has registered a MindFreedom Shield is, to the best of our ability, verifiably found by MindFreedom to be subjected to coerced or forced psychiatric treatment, an alert will be sent to the MindFreedom Solidarity Network on that person's behalf. Everyone in the MindFreedom Solidarity Network is expected to participate in constructive, nonviolent action recommended in the alert received to support the person for whom an alert has been issued.  The MindFreedom Shield program is not an advocacy system, and is no substitute for advocacy. The MindFreedom Shield does not have the resources to do research, advocate on specific details of your care, or provide legal or medical advice. The MindFreedom Shield is basic and focused, similar to Amnesty International's alert system: A number of people speak out in a civil way to a decision-maker about a basic allegation of human rights abuse because of psychiatric coercion. While no one can guarantee the results of issuing human rights alerts, it has been our experience that public awareness can often reduce, if not end, situations of coerced or forced psychiatric treatment. In any case, the MindFreed Shield serves to educate the public that coerced and forced psychiatric procedures continue to harm the human rights of people internationally. And the MindFreedom Shield helps a survivor of psychiatric abuse know they are not alone, and others are remembering and speaking out for their human rights.”  Mindfreedom asks a modest fee of $35 for a 12 month membership, however, if you have a low income they suggest $20.00 for joining. This organization has proven to be very effective in getting shock therapy stopped on certain individuals.
Other organizations that campaign against forced shock are: “Support Coalition International” http://www.ect.org/resources/resolution.html, “Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault” http://capacanada.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/resolution-against-electroshock/ , and the “The No Force Coalition”http://www.qsos.ca/qspc/nfc/fact3.html.  More websites on shock are: breggin.com, ect.org, mindfreedom.org, capa.oise.utoronto.ca, endofshock.com, icbe.wordpress.com, banshock.org, psychrights.org . Additionally, psychiatric rights advocate  Sue Clark’s phone number is .sueclark@gmail.com or call her at: 613-721-1833 .
     Electroshock is an instrument of torture and has not proven any long term benefits.  Instead of benefiting psychiatric patients it disables them more, taking away significant parts of the victim’s memory and personality.  In the future society will look back and see shock therapy as barbaric.  Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) seems to be a more humane treatment and is currently being studied in clinical trials. However, today, we all need to unite and show our moral outrage about shock therapy and the web of lies surrounding it. We need to be awake to the shocking truth.

*  For further reading on electroshock you can go to the following websites.

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n04/historia/shock_i.htm

LIST OF RESOURCES IN THE INTERNET

Compiled by: Renato M.E. Sabbatini, PhD, Faculty of Medical Sciences and Center for Biomedical Informatics, State University of Campinas, Brazil.
Last updated: February 17, 1997.
From: The History of Shock Therapy in Psychiatry
By: Renato M.E. Sabbatini, PhD
Source: Brain & Mind Magazine, August/September 1997

To Know More

  • Endler, N.S. - The origins of electroconvulsive therapy. Convulsive Therapy 1988; 4: 5-23.
  • Fink, M. - Meduna and the origins of convulsive therapy. Am J Psychiatry 1984; 141: 1034-1041.
  • Abrams, R. - Electroconvulsive Therapy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
  • Fink, M. Convulsive Therapy. New York: Raven Press, 1985.
  • Mackay, R.P. - Ladislas Joseph Meduna 1896-1964. Recent Adv Biol Psychiatry 1965;8:357-358
  • Sakel, M. - The methodical use of hypoglicemia in the treatment of psychoses. Reproduced in: Am J Psychiatry 1994 Jun;151(6 Suppl): 240-247
  • Ugo Cerletti and the discovery of Electroshock. An imaginary interview by Francesco Bollorino*, Rossella Valdre*, Maria Vittoria Giannelli Ph.D**.University of Genoa
  • Presentation Speech: Julius Wagner-Jauregg, The 1927 Medicine and Physiology Award, The Nobel Foundation



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